Let’s visit Gawker to read the story how 1,000 Chinese cats were stolen by cat traffickers in Northeast China, but were rescued after their owners found one another on the internet and collaborated with local law enforcement. All those cats got back home. A happy ending indeed.

Cat trafficking? Really? I guess that does go on in China. It’s true. I actually do learn something new every day. Click here to get to Gawker.

Now I’m sharing this story because. . .

I find it kind of interesting.

I like cats.

I wanted to put up that cute cat gif.

You don’t have to pick the reason why I’m sharing the story. It’s all three of the above.

When it comes to grocery shopping, sometimes I’ll buy the brand name but most of the time I don’t. I almost always do my grocery shopping at the Kroger store on Madison Avenue here in Covington and almost always I’ll purchase their store brand.

Take, for example, their toasted oats cereal. In my view, they pretty much taste exactly like Cheerios but cost less. I’m all for saving money. Of course, should someone ask me what I had for breakfast, I’ll say “a bowl of Cheerios,” and not “a bowl of Kroger toasted oats.”

Sometimes I complain about the packaging of cereal. I mean do they really need to put it in a box? I think we’re paying more for the cereal because of that box.

With that in mind, I recently purchased some toasted rice cereal—the brand name would be called Rice Krispies—in a bag instead of a box. I saved even more money by doing this and I gave myself a pat on the back.

When it came time to open up my bag of toasted rice cereal, I ripped open the bag too quickly, leaving a big tear in the bag. I’m lucky I still had my empty box of toasted oats cereal. I put my bag of toasted rice cereal into my box of toasted oats cereal. I know. This can be a little confusing.

I’m going to keep that empty box of toasted oats around. Next time I go to Kroger I’ll look for a bag of toasted oats and I’ll put that bag inside the toasted oats box.

Now that I’m over 60-years-old, I think I’m entitled to say, “Back in my day.” There’s not much else good about getting older, so just give me this.

Back in my day, music albums—now I guess you call them CDs—went platinum all the time. Apparently that’s not the case anymore. I was amazed to recently find out that only one album released in 2014 went platinum. I was even more amazed to find out which album it was.

It was Taylor Swift’s “1989” album. Click here to read a pretty interesting article about it.

You all know I’ve written about Taylor Swift here before and you all know my feelings about her, so I’m not going to link to any of those earlier posts. Having said that, I will repeat here that I think with Swift, it’s more about the money than the actual music. I’ve heard a few songs from this “1989” album and some of the music is catchy. I don’t consider catchy great music. There’s a difference.

I will give Taylor Swift this: She’s smart and/or she has smart people around her. “1989” sold over one million copies in its first week of release. Even “back in my day,” that was pretty much unheard of.

Well, here it is the day after Christmas (I’m still saying Christmas as there still is no ‘war’ to be fought) and our stats will be down today as most of you have other things going on. A lot of you dislike my Country Music posts—not all, but some—so I’ll post one today when some of you won’t be paying attention. In other words I’m trying to sneak one by you.

My brothers and I met Stonewall Jacksonat Winter Gardens nightclub in Elizabethtown, Ohio in 1967. I know it was 1967, because I remember the album he had out at the time—“Help Stamp Out Loneliness.” Why I remember this, I have no idea. You know, stuff just stays in your head.

My father was a big fan of Stonewall’s and Dad got to meet him and shake his hand. I’m glad Mr. Jackson was a good old country boy about it as my father got a kick out of this.

“Don’t Be Angry” was a song by father loved. I’m going to put it up here today in his memory.
Now, I’m sneaking away.

Apparently Bill O’Reilly has yet again declared victory on this “war.” I’m not going to link to his victory because it’s a made up one. There is no war on Christmas.

Didn’t some other Fox idiot start this nonsense before O’Reilly? John Gibson maybe? No, of course it doesn’t matter.

Merry Christmas. There, I said it. I’m not being politically incorrect. No one gives a shit that I said it.

I said it down at the corner of happy and healthy the other day (Walgreens/Covington). I said it at Whack! Burger on Madison Avenue. I said it at the Dollar Tree Store. I’ve been saying it all over the place.

I said it to a few people I passed on the sidewalk the other day. Yes. I’m a rebel and/or I’m still allowed to say those words. I mean, no cops came knocking on my door and I’m not out of jail on bond.

I said “Happy Holidays,” a few times too, just to shake it up. That didn’t cause a stir either.

I’m constantly amazed in my old age how people make stuff up and get upset over things that don’t matter or isn’t even real.

I’m getting off on a rant. That’s not nice during the holiday season—you know, Peace on Earth and all that.

Anyway. . .

I won’t be doing a blog post on Christmas Day but I do intend to do one the following day—on Friday.

Like I usually say around this time of year, I hope tomorrow is what you want it to be. If that means Christmas, great. If it’s just another day—that’s great too. Be yourself. You already know that.

In the whole scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just something I noticed.

Last week, two television talk shows ended their runs. “The Colbert Report” on Thursday and “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” on Friday. The Huffington Post gave Stephen Colbert plenty of attention on his finale. It was very clear Arianna Huffington was a fan of this show.

As far as Craig Ferguson? Not so much. I couldn’t find anything on The Huffington Post on Craig Ferguson’s final show. I had to go elsewhere to read about it. Maybe Arianna’s massive and popular blog doesn’t know Ferguson also left his talk show last week. Yeah—right.

Again, in the whole scheme of things—in this whole scheme of life, it doesn’t really matter. Having said that, The Huffington Post clearly picks its favorites.

I’ll let you in on a secret. Sometimes I write these blogs in advance. Yes, a lot of the time I write them the morning that I post them, but I like to get a little ahead sometimes and write one that I can post any old time.

I’m writing this one on Saturday morning, December 20th. It’s a quarter after seven. The corner of happy and healthy (Walgreens/Covington) isn’t even open yet.

It doesn’t matter that it’s not open. Yesterday (Friday), I planned my day out for today. I don’t have to go anywhere—don’t have to even put my pants on if I don’t want to. Just so you know, my pants are on.

I like days like this. I like days when I don’t have to open my apartment door and deal with anybody. I know damn well that a part of me can be very antisocial. I like that in myself.

This day, this Saturday, will be a writing day for me. I’ve got a CityBeat column I want to get started on and I’m also proofreading the first half of the novel I’m writing. I’m over 13,000 words into it and I’m liking it. That’s a good sign.

I’ll play my mandolin later and will also read. I do both of these things every day—not just on Saturday.

Now, I can run this blog post any old time, but I think you’ll probably be reading this on Monday. That’s my guess.

(I know the graphic doesn’t really go with the post and on Monday I may care but on this Saturday, I don’t. It’s from WordPress)